Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck plans to unveil a new program next week that he said will hopefully prompt the unique immigrant population of his county to report – and avoid – more crimes.

Buck, who has been criticized in the past for his harsh stance on immigration, will not reveal details of his new program. He said it will incorporate some crime prevention and educational components that are already in place in Weld County and other areas, as well as some new and different efforts centered on collaboration with other agencies.

“A lot of this will be more collaborative,” Buck said. “We certainly are reaching out to the community and making more connections.”

Weld County has a large population of Mexican, Latin American, Somali and Burmese immigrants, drawn there by the county’s meat-packing industry.

Buck said there are problems with general crimes of violence and domestic violence in the immigrant population that go unreported or that are difficult to prosecute because witnesses are reluctant to come forward. Immigrants also are preyed upon by phony consultants and wage thieves and are sometimes afraid to report these crimes.

The problems, Buck said, are compounded by the cultural differences of the Muslim, the Burmese and the Spanish-speaking communities.

In 2009 Buck lost a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union over his prosecuting cases from a raid on a tax preparer’s office to find information related to identity theft by immigrants.

Weld County also drew national attention in 2006 when a raid on a meat packing plant resulted in the arrest of 265 workers, mostly Hispanics.

Part of the program will include collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to encourage crime victims and witnesses to come forward without fear of facing deportation or other retaliation. Buck said his office is already helping victims to obtain U Visas, which are designed to protect crime victims by giving them legal status in the United States.

Buck was narrowly defeated by Democrat Michael Bennet in his Republican bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 2010. Political pundits partially blamed the loss on his lack of support among Hispanic voters.